TEHRAN (Tasnim) � Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani praised the Syrian people and government for their resistance against terrorist groups, saying that countries committed to the Resistance Front fully back Damascus.

Speaking in a Wednesday meeting with Syria's Defense Minister Lieutenant General Fahd Jasim al-Furayj in Tehran, Shamkhani described the Arab country's role in regional equations as significant and influential, saying that all "Resistance Front" nations, including Iran, strongly support Syria.

He further said certain countries are supporting terrorist groups in Syria with the aim of serving the interests of the Zionist regime of Israel.

However, he noted, the international community has come to the conclusion that using terrorism as an instrument�and provoking violence only exacerbate crises and that there is no solution to them except dialogue and diplomacy.

The Syrian defense minister, for his part, pointed to the latest field developments in his country and stressed the high spirit of the Syrian people and army in their fight against terrorism.

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently controlling parts of it, mostly in the east.

In the past four years, more than 200,000 people have died in Syria -overwhelmingly civilians� and around 4 million Syrian people are now refugees in other countries. Another 7.6 million are displaced inside Syria.

By Tasnim News Agency